A Rose By Any Other Name
by jmp22895
Summary: Germany is going to ask Italy out this Valentine's day. Err, that was the plan anyway. Instead, he finds himself telling Italy all about his crush on some girl named 'Felicia'. And now Germany's stuck trying to figure out how to keep up the lie or risk Italy finding out his real feelings. This probably won't be too long... Happy Valentine's Day!


Germany opened his eye a crack, seeing light filtering through his bedroom window. He blinked sleepily, turning toward the clock. Eight o' clock.

Germany froze. Eight o' clock? He sat up with a yelp, wondering why his alarm hadn't woke him up at five like usual. He knew he'd been up late finishing some paperwork, but he still had things scheduled for that day. He almost scrambled immediately out of the bed, when he felt something slip off his shoulder, and heard a soft _thump_ from somewhere next to him, accompanied by a sleepy "Ve…" He turned abruptly, finding a familiar form snuggling back against a pillow, his hair curl protruding from under the blankets.

Germany blinked a few times, trying to recall letting Italy into his house, and then, of course, remembering he didn't have to. Italy was like a cockroach, or a mouse or something, able to slip through any crack in the wall to get into Germany's house. He'd given up on trying to figure out how.

Germany sighed, shaking his head and slowly slipping out of the bed. Silently, he crept into his bathroom, deciding he'd let Italy sleep for a while before dragging him out of bed.

Germany had a routine in the morning. He'd wake up at five o' clock every day without fail. He'd get up and head to the bathroom, take a ten minute shower, get dressed, and head downstairs to pour himself a cup of coffee. Then he'd run for fifteen minutes around town, wherever he was that day. If he was in another city, he'd take in the sights, but when he was home he'd usually just use the time to clear his head in the chilly air.

Then he'd go home and wake Italy.

Who had been sneaking into his room so often that he had become part of his routine.

Of course, today, waking up three hours late left Germany scrambling to finish his shower in five minutes and dashing down the stairs, pulling on his jacket and cursing to himself as he entered the kitchen.

"Guten Morgen sleeping beauty," Prussia mumbled as Germany passed, taking a long swig of black coffee and putting his feet up onto the kitchen table. "The hell took you so long? I'm waiting for someone to make me breakfast—"

"Did you turn off my alarm?" Germany asked furiously, swatting his brother's feet off the table.

Prussia almost toppled out of the chair, spilling some coffee on the floor as he steadied himself. He scowled back as Germany started pouring himself some coffee. "Nein, Italy did."

"…Italy did?" Germany asked, sending his brother a skeptical look.

Prussia nodded. "Ja, something about you working too hard and Valentine's Day and me keeping all this a secret." He shrugged sleepily. "I dunno, he's a silly kid. Cute though."

Germany frowned at him. "Valentine's Day? What does that have anything to do with…" He paused, remembering what day it was. "Scheiße, it's Valentine's Day?"

"Why, you planning on proposing again? Judging from what I heard last time, you're going to need to work pretty hard to top that…"

Germany glared at Prussia, his face going red. "That was decades ago and I asked you to _never_ bring it up again."

"Ja ja, whatever you say, West." Prussia surreptitiously slipped his feet back onto the table. "So, where the hell is my fancy Valentine's Day breakfast?"

Germany sent him another glare, and Prussia laughed. "What about for Italy? You going to make him a fancy breakfast in bed? Kesesese…"

"Why the hell would I do that?" Germany snapped back, his face reddening again.

Prussia of course continued to snigger at him. "Why the hell do you think, West?" He asked. "It's Valentine's Day. Aren't you going to finally ask him out? I thought you were planning on—"

"Shhhh," Germany hissed immediately, looking around frantically to make sure no one could hear them.

Prussia just laughed. "Oh come on, Italy sleeps like a rock, he's not going to hear us."

"I don't care, I don't…I-I'm not asking Italy out," Germany told him. "I don't know where you heard that, but I am _not_ asking Italy out."

Prussia rolled his eyes and groaned slightly, shaking his head. "West, come on. We both you know like him, hell the whole world does." Germany narrowed his eyes, so Prussia added, "Alright, not the _whole_ world. I don't think Italy has figured it out yet."

Germany shook his head angrily. "Prussia, I can't just…I can't just ask him out. I…" Germany paused, sitting down at the table across from his brother, feeling his face burning. "First of all, I promised my boss that I'd read through some things and…I was going to prepare some notes for the next world meeting and…" Germany paused, realizing how lame his excuses sounded. Awkwardly, he added, "Besides, I…I certainly wouldn't know what to say, or how to act or…I can't…I'm not going at ask him—"

"Oh hey Italy!" Prussia suddenly interrupted, sitting up quickly. Germany almost leapt out of his seat, whirling around to see the Italian walking into the room, still looking like he was asleep. He trudged past, yawning and rubbing his closed eye with the palm of his hand, stopping in front of the refrigerator and pulling it open.

Germany watched him, feeling his blush worsening. Italy was always so cute. Ugh. Germany turned away, rubbing the back of his next nervously. "Um, guten Morgen Italy," he said.

Italy looked over, then smiled. "Hi Germany!" He mumbled happily, pulling out some pasta from the night before. "Do you want pasta for breakfast?"

"Um…nein danke."

Prussia laughed slightly, then hopped up, stretching his arms. "Well, I think I gotta go. Don't want to leave anyone waiting for my awesomeness." He grabbed his coffee and strode past, whispering to Germany as he went, "Good luck."

Germany scowled at him, but Prussia was out the door before he could think of a good enough retort.

Italy put his bowl in the microwave, pressing a few buttons and plopping backward into the chair Prussia had occupied a minute ago. "Boungiorno," he mumbled happily.

"Boungio…uh…ja, hi." Germany coughed nervously. "Um, happy…h-happy Valentine's Day."

Italy immediately perked up. "Oh yeah! Happy Valentine's Day! Ve~ I almost forgot what day it was! Are we still going to do running and stuff? I really don't want to exercise today. Does Japan celebrate Valentine's Day I always forget oh maybe we should all do something fun together!"

"U-Um, ja," Germany agreed, not really paying attention to what Italy was saying, not that he would understand when Italy talked so fast. "Hey, um, Italy…"

_Beep beep beep_

"Oh, pasta's ready~!" Italy hopped up, skipping back over to the microwave.

Germany sighed softly. This was never going to work. He rubbed his temples with a long sigh. "Gott I hate this stupid holiday…" he mumbled to himself.

Italy plopped back down, looking up at him. "What? Why not?"

Germany grimaced, not thinking he'd been loud enough for Italy to hear. "No reason," he told him quickly, fixing his gaze on anything but Italy.

"…I knew it!"

Germany frowned, looking back up at Italy, whose face looked half-smug-half-excited. "Wha…knew what?" He asked uncomfortably.

A huge smile had spread across his face. "Germany…Germany has a _crush,_ right~?"

Germany stiffened, his face flushing. "W-W-What? N-Nein what—why would—what makes you think that?" He asked frantically.

Italy was giggling now. "Wow Germany's face just got soooo red!" He teased, smiling. "I heard you and Prussia talking earlier!"

Germany just gaped open-mouthed out him, unable to say anything for a moment. Finally, he stammered, "N-Nein, no Prussia was just—Whatever you heard I swear is not—"

"Oh, oh, Germany what's her name?"

Germany stopped halfway through his half-assed response. "…h…her?"

Italy nodded fervently, his oblivious smile still plastered to his face. "Yeah! My best friend in the whole wide world wants to ask someone out, so I wanna know her name!" Italy was almost bouncing with excitement. "What is she like? Is she nice? You gotta tell me everything!"

"…ah…j-ja you…want to know her…name…" he mumbled weakly, his mind still processing that.

"Si si!"

Germany felt himself starting to panic. What was he supposed to say? Italy continued prodding him excitedly, 've'ing and smiling. "Come on, come on Germany! Is she pretty? Is she tough like you? Is she nice and sweet? Oh I bet she's really great if you like her—"

"Her name is Felicia."

Both Germany and Italy seemed rather startled by that response. Germany cursed furiously in his head. _Felicia? REALLY? Germany what the hell—?_

"Felicia? Oh wow I love that name!" Italy gushed. "Hey, wait, that's an Italian name, is she Italian?"

Germany cringed slightly. "Um, nein, she isn't but, um, she might have Italian decent?" He found himself saying. _Germany, what are you doing? _He thought frantically. _Stop it!_

"What's she like?" Italy asked. "Is she big and strong like you?"

"No she's not, she's kind of weak and scrawny and silly and—" _Germany if you continue to talk I will rip your tongue out._

Italy thought for a moment. "Really? Huh, well she sounds…"

_She sounds like you verdammt she sounds just like you what the hell am I even doing!? _Germany cleared his throat. "J-Ja, well, let's not talk about this okay? I, um…I think I have to go running for a while."

Italy laughed. "Okay, Germany, see you later!"

Germany quickly stood up and left, fixing his jacket, and silently screaming in his head. That certainly was _not_ how he'd wanted that conversation to go…

* * *

_This shouldn't be a very long fic. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!_


End file.
